Do you remember seeing the replay of Red Sox catcher Carlton
Fisk hopping and waving his arms in the hopes that his long fly ball would stay fair in the 1975 World Series? That
home run gave Boston a thrilling 12-inning victory over the
Cincinnati Reds in Game Six.

That's right. It also happened in Game Six. But just like the Mets' dramatic Game Six victory in the 1986 World Series, the home run by Fisk did not clinch
the title for the Red Sox. All it did was force a seventh
game, a game won by the Reds to give Cincinnati the championship.

Had the Mets followed up their Game Six heroics with a loss the following
night, the miracle comeback would have been for naught. The Mets had to
win Game Seven to validate their incredible campaign. The stage was set at Shea Stadium
for the final game of the 1986 baseball season. It was up to the Mets
to make the dream come true for their fans.

Game Seven was originally scheduled for Sunday, October 26. However, a
steady rain forced the postponement of the game until the following
night. Red Sox starter Dennis "Oil Can" Boyd was supposed to start the
seventh game against Ron Darling. However, with an extra day of rest,
the Red Sox chose to bypass Boyd (who had given up six runs to the Mets
in his Game Three loss) and gave the ball to Bruce Hurst.

Hurst had already defeated the Mets in Game One and notched a complete
game victory against New York in Game Five. Although he was pitching Game Seven on
three days rest, the Mets were still wary about Hurst. His
performances against the Mets in the World Series were reminiscent of
Mike Scott's outings in the NLCS. If the Mets were going to beat Hurst,
Ron Darling was going to have to match him pitch for pitch.
Unfortunately, that was not the case in the early innings.

Bruce Hurst was his usual strong self in the early innings, keeping the
Mets off the scoreboard. Ron Darling? Not so much. After a scoreless
first inning, he gave up three runs in the second inning, including
back-to-back home runs by Dwight Evans and Rich Gedman. By the time the
fourth inning rolled around, Darling had already given up six hits and
walked a batter. He then hit Dave Henderson with a pitch to lead off
the fourth inning. After facing two more batters, Darling was relieved
by starter turned reliever Sid Fernandez. The score was still
3-0 in favor of the Red Sox and the game was slipping away from the
Mets. It was up to El Sid to stop the fire from spreading.

In perhaps the guttiest (no pun intended) performance by Fernandez in
his Mets career, he shut down the Red Sox. After walking his first
batter (Wade Boggs), Sid retired the next seven batters he faced, with
four of them coming via the strikeout. Fernandez did everything he
could to keep his team in the game, but his efforts would go in vain
unless the Mets could finally solve the puzzle that was Bruce Hurst.

With time running out on the Mets and their dream season, Davey Johnson
was forced to make a difficult move in the bottom of the sixth inning.
After Rafael Santana grounded out to start the inning, the Mets were
down to Sid Fernandez's spot in the batting order. Would Johnson take
Sid out for a pinch hitter, hoping that the Mets would start a rally or
would he leave him in the game, possibly giving up on another inning in
which to mount a comeback against Bruce Hurst? Johnson chose to pinch
hit for Fernandez and it ended up being one of the best managerial
decisions he ever made.

Lee Mazzilli stepped up to the plate in lieu of Fernandez. He greeted
Hurst with a single to left. Game Six hero Mookie Wilson followed
Mazzilli with a hit of his own, followed by a walk to Tim Teufel. The
base on balls loaded the bases for Keith Hernandez and brought the crowd
of 55,032 to its feet. The cheering rose to a crescendo when Hernandez
delivered a two-run single to center, scoring Mazzilli and Wilson and
sending Teufel to third. Since Teufel represented the tying run, Davey
Johnson sent in the speedier Wally Backman to pinch run for him as Gary
Carter stepped up to the plate. Carter came through as he drove in
Backman with a ball that would have been a base hit to right had a
confused Hernandez not been forced out at second base when rightfielder
Dwight Evans rolled over the ball. Hernandez had to freeze between
first and second until he knew that the ball had not been caught.
Despite the out being recorded, the Mets had tied the game at 3. They
had finally gotten to Bruce Hurst and hope was alive at Shea. That hope
became greater when Ray Knight came to bat in the seventh inning
against a familiar face.

Calvin Schiraldi had been brought in by the Red Sox to start the seventh
inning. Schiraldi was the losing pitcher in Game Six, having allowed
Gary Carter, Kevin Mitchell and Ray Knight to deliver hits off him in
the tenth inning. This time, he was facing Knight with no one on base,
trying to erase the bitter memories of his previous outing. Knight
would not provide him with the eraser. On a 2-1 pitch from Schiraldi,
Knight got under a pitch and launched it to deep left-center, barely
clearing the outfield wall. A jubilant Knight celebrated as he rounded
the bases. The Mets finally had their first lead of the game and they made sure that they weren't going to give it back. The
hit parade continued in the seventh inning, as an RBI single by Rafael
Santana and a sacrifice fly by Hernandez gave the Mets a 6-3
lead. The Mets were in front, but the Red Sox weren't going to go away
quietly.

Roger McDowell had come into the game in the seventh inning once Sid
Fernandez had been pinch hit for. He continued where Sid had left off
by retiring the Red Sox in order in the seventh. However, things went a
little differently for McDowell in the eighth inning. Bill Buckner led
off the inning with a single. Jim Rice followed Buckner with a single
of his own. After Dwight Evans doubled into the gap in right field,
scoring both Buckner and Rice, the lead had been cut to a single run.
The Red Sox were down 6-5 with the tying run on second base and nobody
out. It was time for Davey Johnson to make one last move, with the
World Series on the line.

Jesse Orosco came in from the bullpen, hoping to shut down the Red Sox
to preserve the lead for the Mets. His first batter, Rich Gedman, had
homered earlier off starting pitcher Ron Darling. This time, he hit the
ball hard again, but in the direction of second baseman Wally Backman.
Backman caught the line drive in the air, holding Evans at second
base. The next batter was Dave Henderson. He had given the Red Sox the
lead with a home run in the tenth inning of Game Six. Now he had a
chance to duplicate the feat, as a home run would have given Boston the
lead. This time, the only thing he made contact with was the air.
Orosco struck him out on four pitches and then induced Don Baylor to
ground out to short to end the threat. The Mets were now three outs
away from a championship, but they weren't finished scoring yet.

The Red Sox called upon Al Nipper to face Darryl Strawberry to lead off
the bottom of the eighth inning. Nipper was trying to keep the Mets'
lead at one so that the Red Sox could make one last attempt in the ninth
inning to tie the game or take the lead. It didn't take long for that
one run lead to grow. Strawberry greeted Nipper with a towering home
run to right field that almost took as long to come down as it did for
Strawberry to round the bases. After Darryl finally finished his home
run "trot" (To call it a trot would be putting it mildly. It was more
like a stroll and it led to a bench-clearing brawl the following season
in spring training when Nipper and the Red Sox faced Strawberry
and the Mets again.), the Mets had a 7-5 lead. After a hit, a walk and
an RBI single by Jesse Orosco on a 47-hopper up the middle (how
appropriate since 47 was Jesse's number), the Mets had regained their
three-run lead. After being held scoreless by Bruce Hurst for the first
five innings of the game, the Mets had exploded for eight runs in the
last three innings to take an 8-5 lead into the ninth inning. Orosco
was still on the mound, hoping to throw the season's final pitch.

With the champagne ready to be uncorked in the Mets clubhouse, Orosco
went to work on the Red Sox batters. Ed Romero popped up to first base
in foul territory for the first out. That was followed by Wade Boggs
grounding out to second base for the second out. The Mets were one out
away from a championship. Nothing was going to stop them from winning
this game. Well, nothing except for the pink smoke bomb that was thrown
onto the field.

That did not matter to Jesse Orosco or the Mets. After the smoke
cleared, Marty Barrett stepped up to the plate. Barrett had already
collected a World Series record-tying 13 hits, trying to set the record
and keep the season alive for the Red Sox. However, that was not to
be. We now turn the microphone over to the late Bob Murphy for the
final pitch.

"He struck him out! Struck him out! The Mets have won the World Series! And they're jamming and crowding all over Jesse Orosco! He's somewhere at the bottom of that pile! He struck out Marty Barrett! The dream has come true! The Mets have won the World Series, coming from behind to win the seventh ballgame!"

The Mets had completed their dream season with a World Series
championship. After 108 regular season victories and a hard-fought
six-game NLCS against the Houston Astros, the Mets were able to bring
the trophy home. At times, it seemed as if the season was going to come
to a screeching halt, but through determination, perseverance and
perhaps an extra pebble or two around the first base area during Game Six,
the Mets came through for themselves, for their fans and for the city
of New York.

In 1986, the Mets owned New York. They were a blue (and orange) collar
team for a blue-collar city. Thirty years ago today, the Mets
became the World Champions of baseball. Victory never tasted so sweet.

One final postscript on the whereabouts of Jesse Orosco's glove:I'm sure many of you who watched Game Seven remember Jesse Orosco flinging his glove up in the air after striking out Marty Barrett to end the World Series. Have any of you wondered what happened to that glove? Now it can be told!

If you have the 1986 World Series DVDs, watch the final out of Game Seven. After Orosco throws the glove up in the air and falls to his knees, he gets up just as Gary Carter and the rest of his teammates mob him at the pitcher's mound. Now hit the "slow" button on your remote and watch closely as Bud Harrelson (wearing No. 23) runs around the crowd of players to the left of them. He has nothing in his hands as he goes around the pile of ecstatic players. Right before he goes off-camera, you can see him start to bend over. When he comes back a split second later to celebrate with the team on the mound, he has a glove in his left hand. That's Jesse Orosco's glove.

The Studious Metsimus staff and friends of the staff had the pleasure of meeting both Bud Harrelson and Jesse Orosco (see photo, below right).

We also ran into Orosco at Darryl Strawberry's restaurant (an eatery which sadly is no longer with us) and asked him if he knew who retrieved the glove for him after he recorded the final out of the 1986 World Series. For over a quarter century, he was under the impression that it was bullpen coach Vern Hoscheit, but wasn't sure. When we informed him that it was Bud Harrelson and explained how he retrieved it, he was surprised to hear the news and thanked us for finally giving him confirmation. Hey, it was the least we could do for the man who gave us one of our fondest Mets memories!

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